NEWS & EVENTS

MFA Interdisciplinary Design chair Maria Luisa Rossi visited Turkey in early November, meeting with that country’s leading design professionals, scholars and students. On Nov. 5, Rossi was a featured panelist at the US-Turkey Creative Economies and Business Summit held at Istanbul Commerce University. Rossi’s topic, “Impact of Including Design Thinking Competencies in Education,” was part of a panel examining “how design educators can formulate management and research objectives that better respond to their own transnational contexts.”

On Nov. 7, Rossi delivered a seminar on “Imagining and Designing for the Future: How to Read Changes, as the Future Accelerates Needs and Perspectives” at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. Her talk was sponsored by the Department of Industrial Design, one of the most competitive programs of its kind in Turkey. While at METU, Rossi also served as a juror for the final sponsored project presentation.

In addition to METU, Rossi visited Turkey’s leading design schools: Istanbul Technical University which, along with METU, produces that country’s leading designers; Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, which houses the first industrial design department in Turkey; and ÖzyeÄŸin University (OU). OU is one of the newest universities in Turkey; nevertheless, the school plans to house one of the largest business programs in the country, supported by a world-class, multinational faculty.